SHIMMER VOLUME 4

Taped February 12, 2006

Rain . . . puts on her best singles match performance, with a little help from the American Angel.

Cheerleader Melissa . . . once again puts on a clinic in punishment with Mschif as the subject.

Rebecca Knox . . . proves without a shadow of doubt that she can work, but that ultimately leads to her undoing.

NIKKI ROXX vs. AMBER O’NEAL

Say what you will about Amber’s work (or lack of it, at times) but she gets some great heat with the crowd. The match itself is relatively simple, but they make it work. Amber knows she can’t hope to actually wrestle Nikki and win, so she works like a Fabulous Moolah trainee circa 1984, pulling out every dirty tactic she can think of. Nikki tries several times to get something going, but Amber is always quick to cut her off. Amber’s head gets too big and she starts trying to wrestle Nikki, which causes her downfall. It was impressive to see Amber bust out a straightjacket hold, but Nikki easily flipped her over. Amber had a nice DDT as a counter to a bodyslam, but her cover was so lackadaisical that Nikki reversed it for a near fall. Nikki quickly takes the opening and hits the, yet unnamed, Barbie Crusher to get the win in a fun little opener.

SHANTELLE TAYLOR vs. ANNE BROOKSTONE

Shantelle’s finest moment, this isn’t, but that doesn’t have anything to do with Shantelle. Brookstone is basically a low-rent Amazing Kong in that she’s bigger than Shantelle and tries to use that to her advantage, but she doesn’t have any of the qualities that make Kong so fun to watch. The best thing out of Anne is the standing reverse crab with her bouncing Taylor’s head off the turnbuckle, and it sounds a lot better than it looks. Taylor tries a few things to show that she can outwrestle Anne, but Anne doesn’t seem to want (or know how) to go along, and the spots look hideous. This mercifully ends with Shantelle getting a flash cradle to pin Brookstone. This winds up being Brookstone’s only SHIMMER match, as she went back to wherever she came from and stayed there. For that, we thank you.

MALIA HOSAKA/LEXIE FYFE vs. CINDY ROGERS/LORELEI LEE

They had the right idea for how to lay this out, classic formula tag match, but the wrong execution (Cindy in peril with Lee as the hot tag). Given how ugly just about all of Lee’s offense was (including not one but two dropkicks that make Mick Foley look like Tommy Rogers), it’s impossible to think that she wouldn’t have been a vast improvement being in peril with Cindy as the hot tag. Hosaka and Fyfe aren’t really that good, but they’re fun. They’re a far cry from Tully and Arn as far as their actual work, but they’ve got the attitude to help make up for it. Cindy is left somewhere in the middle of it all, she’s clearly better than Lee (not a daunting task, mind you), but doesn’t get much chance to show off anything else. After Cindy gets worked over for far too long she makes the tag, but Lee winds up getting lost and finds herself on her own and quickly dispatched by their double suplex slam.

ALLISON DANGER vs. TIANA RINGER

The best compliment available to this match is that neither Danger nor Ringer is nearly as bad as Brookstone, but that’s it as far as any praise for this is concerned. The story here seems to be that Danger is a better overall wrestler than Ringer, and they illustrate that through Danger’s early headlocks and Danger getting the small package for the win. The headlocks are fine, but there isn’t anything else from Danger or Ringer to further show Danger as a better wrestler, even something like Ringer trying her own hand at a headlock and having Danger escape easily and get another headlock on Ringer would have worked. It also doesn’t help that when it’s time for Ringer to control the match, which comes from Danger’s shoulder bump into the post, she drops the ball huge. Ringer’s offense consists of her “working the back” with clubbing forearms and doing a snap mare followed by back kick. It doesn’t help that her seated dropkick to the face looked like it only barely made contact. As a whole, this looks like a case of getting what you put in, and Allison and Tiana don’t feel like making a deposit.

SARA DEL REY vs. RAIN

So, where Danger and Ringer failed miserably, Rain and Death Rey succeed enormously. They tell the same basic story, of Sara being an overall better (and smarter) wrestler, and they’re ten times more interesting about it. Rather than the headlocks, Sara works over Rain’s arm early on, with various armlocks and armbars, every bit as technically sound as Danger’s headlock, but much more pleasing to look at. Rain’s reaction to being caught time and time again is perfect, and she even tries to give Sara a taste of her own medicine, but Sara easily escapes and brings Rain right back to where she started. There’s a really nice moment when Rain whips Sara into the ropes and drops down, but Sara puts on the breaks and traps Rain’s arm under her foot to get her back into an armbar.

Like Ringer, Rain gets one over on Sara and works over the back, but Rain is also much better about it. Hell, Rain standing up Sara on the apron and hitting a running knee to the back is better than anything from Ringer. That’s not even the best thing that Rain does, that winds up being a tornado back cracker. Sara gets control back when she counters Rain’s tornado DDT, but doesn’t forget about Rain working over her back, Sara uses the back to explain why she doesn’t finish off Rain with the German suplex, but it does enough damage to Rain that the Royal Butterfly is more than enough to finish her off. It’s a good match, which is no surprise with Death Rey involved, but it’s the best singles match I’ve seen from Rain. ***1/4

CHEERLEADER MELISSA vs. MSCHIF (Falls Count Anywhere)

Like the last woman standing match they’d have a few months after this, this is more of a spectacle than it is a match. Melissa and Mschif’s only intention seems to be to beat the hell out of each other, using as many creative ideas as possible. Mschif’s flexibility lets Melissa stretch the holy hell out her six ways from Sunday, and Mschif even returns the favor when she tries to stretch out Melissa over the back of a chair. They get a little goofy with Melissa using a board on wheels (evidently meant for storing things under the stage) to roll Melissa under the stage, and Mschif crawls out of another passage way to surprise her. There’s also an exposing moment during their near fall exchange on the floor when Melissa “kneels” on Mcshif’s shoulders in such a way that it’s clear Mschif won’t have to work too hard to kick out.

Luckily, this isn’t just a giant spofest for the girls to show off. There are a few smart touches thrown into the mix. The best one being Melissa grabbing the chair and missing the wild swing, but using the chair to block Mschif’s green mist. They also make up for the goofiness of the stage spot, when Melissa rolls Mschif toward (and under) the ring, with Mschif taking a bump from the apron and then one from the guardrail when they came out the other side. With the amount of crazy things they did to each other, you’d almost think the finish would be a letdown, but the finish is smart too. Despite stretching Mschif every which way she could, Melissa couldn’t make her quit, so she changes gears and goes back to the Gorilla clutch and this time adds a chair so that Mschif is forced to kick the chair into her own head. There’s no doubting how tough Mschif is, but even she needs to call it a day and tap out to that sort of punishment. If you’re into the crazy spotfests, then it’s hard to steer away from this, and this is a whole lot of fun, but, overall, I’d rank this below their first match.

REBECCA KNOX vs. DAIZEE HAZE

Daizee is far from a piece of luggage when it comes to working a match, but this is clearly designed to be the K-Nox show, regardless of the fact the Haze is the one going over. While her deception and underhandedness is what stood out about her performance from Volume 3, Rebecca *can* work and she shows it here. Knox goes out of her way to show how much she’s capable of doing, whether she’s tying up Haze on the mat, or dumping her with a huge backdrop. One of Knox’s smarter heel touches came when Haze tried to dive onto her and missed, Knox rolled her into the ring and started focusing on her midsection with the seated kicks to the back, and then a big elbow drop. The only real knock on her work is that it never really felt like she was trying to actually win, it was more about her showing off. Then again, Knox probably shouldn’t consider Haze a real threat to her. Sure, Haze had been in the main event of all three (now four) shows, but didn’t have the biggest success rate. Haze beat Lacey on Volume 1, she managed to eliminate Martinez, but then fell to Sara on Volume 2, and then again to Sara on Volume 3. So at best she had a 50/50 record.

While this is mostly the Knox show, Daizee does get some chances to shine. She’s great at putting over the punishment that Knox digs out, and there are few who can express will and determination like the Haze. Haze also manages to surprise Knox with some matwork of her own, which can also speak to Knox underestimating her. They’ve also got a smart finish, with Knox missing a legdrop and possibly hurting her leg. The Haze doesn’t wait to find out if it’s another snow job, she quickly goes to the heart punch and Mind Trip to give Knox the same 50/50 record that she had. The somewhat flukey nature of the loss makes a rematch seem like the most logical thing in the world, and hopefully the loss will teach Knox to be more focused and go for the kill rather than just showing off. ***1/2

Conclusion: This feel a lot like NOAH and All Japan before the split. A weak undercard with the top three matches salvaging the DVD. I feel like the top three matches are good enough to warrant a pickup, provided that expectations aren’t too high.